Fires in care homes (3)

Andrew Dismore: In each of the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, how many times has an inspection following a fire at a care home found it to be deficient in fire safety and therefore requiring a notice of deficiency or other enforcement action?

The Mayor: The information requested is set out in the table below:
Property type
Year
Notice of Deficiency (NoD) Issued
Enforcement Note Issued
Care Home
2016
6
1
2017
5
3
2018
5
4
2019
10
1
Total
26
9

LFB training for critical skills

Andrew Dismore: HMICFRS identified a worrying backlog of staff training in risk critical skills in the London Fire Brigade and calls for a “fundamental review of the contract with the external contractor to ensure that it is fit for purpose”. Do you support this?

The Mayor: London Fire Brigade (LFB) officers have been in discussions with Babcock, the training provider, since October 2019 to reshape what is provided through the contract. The aspiration is to implement key deliverables from the HMICFRS action plan and the independent review of training to enhance the capability of training at LFB to the benefit of individual staff members, whilst ensuring that organisational training priorities are met. The appointment of a Major Change Project Manager to work with Babcock will be completed by the end of June 2020 with the project adopting a phased approach to completion in 2023.

Fires in care homes (2)

Andrew Dismore: In each of the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, how many a) injuries and b) deaths have been caused by fires in care homes?

The Mayor: Please see the table below:
Property type
Year
Incidents
Injuries
Deaths
Nursing/Care Home/Hospice
2016
39
1
1
2017
60
11
0
2018
45
3
0
2019
59
12
0
Total
203
27
1
Other Residential Home
2016
14
0
0
2017
18
0
0
2018
8
0
1
2019
13
3
0
Total
54
3
1
Retirement/Old Persons Home
2016
84
14
0
2017
82
12
0
2018
89
9
0
2019
76
9
0
Total
333
44
0
ALL
2016
137
15
1
2017
160
23
0
2018
142
12
1
2019
148
24
0
Total
587
74
2

Fires in care homes (1)

Andrew Dismore: In each of the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, how many primary fires in care homes have been attended by the London Fire Brigade?

The Mayor: The national incident recording system accounts for different types of property that might be regarded as ‘care home’s’. These include: ‘Nursing/Care Home/Hospice’, ‘Retirement/Old Persons Home’, ‘Other Residential Home’ and ‘Children’s Home’. For the first three categories (excluding ‘Children’s Home’), London Fire Brigade attended a total of 587 incidents between 2016 and 2019 which were primary fires.
A breakdown by the year, as requested, is set out in the response to Mayor's Question2020/0259.

ULEZ Charges and Small Businesses

Jennette Arnold: How many small businesses have applied for the Mayor’s scrappage scheme for polluting older vehicles? How many of these received funding?

The Mayor: Please see my answer to Mayor’s Question 2019/19902.

National Operational Guidance for LFB

Andrew Dismore: Do you share HMICFRS’ concern that the London Fire Brigade’s operational policies and procedures do not fully reflect National Operational Guidance? What will you do to address this?

The Mayor: Please see my response to Mayor's Question 2020/0033.

HMICFRS Report into the London Fire Brigade (1)

Caroline Pidgeon: The recent HMICFRS report into the London Fire Brigade identified that training and development plans for staff in the brigade were “inadequate.” Some staff have not had continuation training in risk-critical skills such as emergency fire engine driving and incident command for many years. Furthermore, it was identified that there is no individual reassessment of competence for incident command as standard. When can Londoners expect the gap in risk-critical skills training to be closed and incident command reassessed regularly at all levels of the service?

The Mayor: The results of the London Fire Brigade’s HMICFRS inspection were simply not good enough and it is important that changes are made to address the issues raised as quickly as possible.
A four-year cycle is in place to satisfy driver training requirements, with the emergency vehicle and blue light car components due for completion by June 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Level 1 and 2 officers receive initial incident command ‘acquisition of skills’ courses, supplemented by yearly ‘maintenance of skills’ courses. Level 3/4 officers attend a suite of training ranging from national CBRN and multi-agency courses to London-specific ‘strategic response arrangements’ training plus bi-annual incident command assessments.Revalidation of incident command assessments will commence in January for level 1 officers. The design of revalidation for other levels is underway and the new courses will begin in April 2020.
This review will be complete by April 2020 with new and revised courses, and revalidation for L1, L2, L3 and L4 officers will be completed by December 2020.

Command training

Andrew Dismore: What steps in training is the London Fire Brigade taking to ensure all officers are competent in incident command?

The Mayor: Please see the response to Mayor's Question 2020/0030.

Emergency vehicle driver training

Andrew Dismore: What steps is the London Fire Brigade taking to ensure continuity training is in place for all staff tasked with driving emergency vehicles?

The Mayor: Please see the response to Mayor's Question 2020/0030.